2022 Veterans Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program

Melissa Bird is a Project Manager with the Entrepreneurship and Small Business portfolio at the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families, supporting special projects for the organization such as entrepreneurship programs and events. She has extensive experience in communications, program management, and special events, which are all services offered by her business, MB2 Communications.

Her background spans more than 15 years of experience working with cross-functional teams for iconic global brands, including ESPN, the National Weather Center, the New York Mets, Walt Disney World, and other major and minor league sports organizations.

A military spouse and Certified Project Manager, Bird is an expert at equipping teams to work together effectively through change as well as crises.

Bird has a diverse academic background, with a degree in journalism and public relations and an MBA in sports management; she also served as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Oklahoma and as a Guest Lecturer at St. John’s University.

In September 2022, Ed Carballo II joined the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as an Innovation Outreach Specialist – National Programs, working in the Office of the Chief Communications Officer.

Carballo transferred to the USPTO from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he was the Chief of the Financial Services Division for the Eastern and Mid-Atlantic Regions, leading a team responsible for several lending programs targeting the commercial fishing industry, fishing vessels, shore-side processing facilities, and aquaculture projects across 19 states.

Prior to his role at NOAA, Carballo was the Deputy District Director with the U.S. Small Business Administration in Georgia, where his leadership consistently placed Georgia in the “Top Five” nationally in SBA lending programs.

Carballo has experience as an entrepreneur and has worked in the finance, service and utilities, technology, and healthcare sectors;  he is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs connect with the resources they need in order to be fully successful.

Carballo is a U.S. Army veteran, having served multiple tours overseas, and he is a lifetime member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and The American Legion.

Dr. Rory Cooper is the Founder, Director, and CEO of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL), a joint venture of the University of Pittsburgh, the U.S.  Department of Veterans Affairs, and the University of Pittsburg Medical Center. Cooper also serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research for STEM and Health Sciences Collaboration and a FISA/PVA Distinguished Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh. His is also a Professor in the Bioengineering, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Orthopaedic Surgery departments at the University of Pittsburgh and holds adjunct professorships at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University and the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and an Honorary Doctorate as Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China. He has dedicated his career to improving mobility, function, and quality of life for people with disabilities through advanced engineering in clinical research and medical rehabilitation.

Rosemarie A. Drake serves as the Deputy District Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Georgia District Office, where she is responsible for managing the team’s efforts to carry out the SBA’s  mission of outreach, training, business development, and program compliance.

Drake also served as the 7(a) Program Division Chief  in the Office of Capital Access from October 2019 until January 2022, where her role included developing and recommending agency-wide policies and procedures which govern the SBA’s 7(a) loan program.

Drake has over 25 years’ experience in commercial lending, complex credit, financial analysis, entrepreneurship, and serving on advisory boards for nonprofit entities focused on lending to underserved markets.

She is a graduate of Temple University’s School of Business and attended Kentucky State University in the Whitney Young Honors Program. Drake is an active member of the Beulah Missionary Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia. 

Carlos Gutierrez started his career serving in the United States Marine Corps, working in the field of logistics. He completed two tours overseas, one of which was in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Persian Gulf. Subsequently, Gutierrez held roles in the private sector, including several years as an Executive Team Leader with Target retail stores and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley.

Additionally, Gutierrez holds a U.S. patent, was the founder of several companies, and has served as an advisor for several nascent-stage tech startups. He has written and managed grants that have been awarded a total of $1.73 million.

Gutierrez has served with several agencies within the federal government, including the Department of Energy, the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Small Business Administration. Gutierrez also previously served as the Director of the Texas Veterans Business Outreach Center.

Gutierrez has a background in business development and program management in the private sector, state government, federal government, academia, and non-profit spaces. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in management from The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, and a Master of Science in technology commercialization from The University of Texas at Austin.

Congressman Darrell Issa represents California's 50th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The District encompasses the central and northeastern parts of San Diego County and a portion of Riverside County, including Fallbrook, San Marcos, Valley Center, Ramona, Escondido, Santee, Lakeside, El Cajon, Temecula, and the mountain and desert areas of the San Diego-Imperial County line.

Originally from Ohio, Issa enlisted in the U.S. Army when he was a senior in high school. Through his military service, he received an ROTC scholarship and graduated with a degree in business from Sienna Heights University in Michigan. After graduation, Issa was commissioned as an Army officer and obtained the rank of captain. He completed his active-duty military service in 1980 and entered the private sector.

At the height of his career in business, Issa served as CEO of California-based Directed Electronics Incorporated, which he founded in the 1990s and which became the nation’s largest manufacturer of vehicle anti-theft and auto security devices. He has served as chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association, served as a member of the board of governors of the Electronics Industry Association, and as director of the San Diego Economic Development Association and the Greater San Diego County Chamber of Commerce. In 1994, Issa received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Inc. Magazine, Ernst & Young, and The San Diego Union Tribune.

Issa is a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. From 2011-2015, he was the Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and previously served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Energy & Commerce Committee, and the Small Business Committee.

A holder of 37 patents, Issa has enacted numerous reforms to protect intellectual property rights and copyright protections for creators. His successful efforts to fight human trafficking along the U.S. border have resulted in tougher laws and more consistent enforcement. And his commitment to consumer privacy, public access to data, and the people’s right to know has established Congressman Issa as a leading voice in developing forward-looking reforms that advance cutting-edge innovation throughout the private sector.

Barbara Kent is the Co-Founder and CEO of Birdy Boutique, a textile manufacturer based in Armada, Michigan. Kent is a retired U.S. Army officer and a service-disabled veteran. She is wife to an active-duty Army engineer and mom to two busy teenagers and a very clumsy German shepherd named Hans. Their family has recently been stationed in Alaska, Hawaii, and Virginia, and they currently reside in Germany, her husband's latest duty assignment. Kent graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1999. She went on to honorably serve in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps for 13 years. She loves traveling with her family, good food, and wine. Kent is an active member of several military volunteer organizations and clubs which raise scholarship funds for military kids and help the active-duty military communities in many other ways.

The Honorable Mark Madrid is Associate Administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA); he reports directly to SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, a member of President Biden’s cabinet. 

As a Presidential Appointee and one of the head officials of the SBA, Madrid leads a unit that supports more than 1 million small businesses annually. He oversees the educational and technical resources arms of the SBA, which include the network of Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers, SCORE, Regional Innovation Clusters, and the Office of Entrepreneurship Education, which houses the Emerging Leaders initiative, Ascent women’s business online program, and SBA’s online Learning Center. Additionally, he supports the agency’s Office of Native American Affairs and leads the American Rescue Plan $100 Million Community Navigator Pilot Program, which he erected alongside his team.

Previously, Madrid served as CEO of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative and Latino Business Action Network. Prior to serving in nonprofit executive roles, including CEO of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he enjoyed a corporate executive banking career that began on Wall Street in 1995 with J.P. Morgan.

Madrid was the 2020 Recipient of the Latino Leaders Maestro Award in the Category of Leadership for his lifetime accomplishments as a distinguished influencer. He recently was honored with the Courage in Government award by the National Business Inclusion Consortium. Soon, he will be named as one of this year’s U.S. 101 Most Influential Latinos.

Matthew Pavelek serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer for the National Veteran-Owned Business Association (NaVOBA), where he previously served as Vice President of Communications and Executive Editor for Vetrepreneur magazine.

Pavelek has been quoted as an expert source in myriad media including, but not limited to, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, The Asbury Park Press, and Crain’s Business; he has also been a panelist in various national conferences, including the National Veterans Small Business Conference and Expo and the Diversity Alliance for Science.

Pavelek served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army and has written extensively about the federal government’s progress toward achieving its goal of spending three percent of contract dollars with firms owned by service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses as outlined by Public Law 106-50. In addition, Pavelek has spearheaded NaVOBA’s State Tracker program that has assisted with, and covered the passage of, vetrepreneur-friendly legislation in more than 35 states across the country, as well as new programs at the local, city, and county government levels.

Pavelek also served as an instructor of communication, journalism, and public speaking at the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University and has also taught for Point Park University.

Nick Ripplinger is the Founder and President of Battle Sight Technologies, founded in 2017. Incorporating his role as a former U.S. Army service member and Operations Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge, Ripplinger continues to have a strong passion for protecting the warfighter through innovating ideas and creating new technologies at Battle Sight. Ripplinger is the best-selling author of “Front Line Leadership – Applying Military Strategies to Everyday Business.” As a service-disabled veteran, Ripplinger dedicates his personal time and resources to assisting veterans in transition by leveraging their military skills in the business world.

My journey started in Alabama, where my mother planted the seeds of caring for family, community, and others. Those values guided me when I joined the U.S. Air Force Reserves at 19 and while working at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Portland, Oregon, and in Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama. I served in the Reserves for 20 years, then retired in 2010 to pursue becoming an entrepreneur. The sense of duty and caring for others that shaped me at home and in the Air Force inspired a life-changing career move in 2015. With partner Omar White, we created American Soul Brothers, a health-conscious BBQ sauce & spreads company with philanthropy built into its mission. As I branch out, I continue to galvanize my military roots and community spirit in my ventures.

Shelby Strong is an experience designer with a passion for ecosystem and community building. As Entrepreneur Experience Manager at Bunker Labs, she has helped shape the Veterans in Residence program and Breaking Barriers in Entrepreneurship workshop. She is passionate about helping small business owners make their dreams a reality through equitable ecosystems and inclusive intersections. She is also the co-founder of Liby Works, an internal communication consulting agency. Strong has a bachelor's degree in communication studies and art history from Luther College and lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with her husband and her energetic dog, Mira.

Kathi Vidal serves as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – America’s Innovation Agency.

As the chief executive of the USPTO, she leads one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. She is the principal IP advisor to the President and the Administration, through the Secretary of Commerce, and is focused on incentivizing and protecting U.S. innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. She leads an agency whose mission is to help American workers and businesses compete and collaborate, especially in ground-breaking technologies and across all demographics. As Director of the USPTO, Vidal is working to expand American innovation for and from all, and to bring more ideas to impact, including serving as the Vice Chair of the Council for Inclusive Innovation (CI²), alongside Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo and the Council members.  

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